Shadow the hedgehog: Mephiles
by Babylon Sky Hawk
Summary: Complete. What started out as a rescure turned into a fight for humanities survival. Now Shadow must fight to defeat a demon of darkness before time itself is destoryed
1. Infiltration

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter One: Infiltration

It has been three months since Sonic, Shadow and Mach (who is really Amy in disguise) raced the Babylon Rogues across the legendary Babylon Garden. And speaking of Shadow, the famous black hedgehog was currently hiding out in the forest outside the steel door entrance that led to Eggman's secret base. "I have to very careful around this place. One wrong move could trip the alarm." Shadow said silently to himself. Just as Shadow took a step forward, the alarm suddenly went off. Shadow looked down and saw that his foot had landed in the path of an inferred laser. "That's just great." Shadow said sarcastically. When the alarm went off, numerous white mechs dropped down from the sky and started firing into the forest. Shadow quickly moved behind the trees to avoid the shots, one nearly taking Shadow's head. "All right, no more hiding!" Shadow shouted as he quickly jumped out from behind the tree and charged at the army of mechs.

The army of white mechs tried to shoot Shadow, but his speed gave him the advantage and avoided all the shots. Shadow ran past the white mechs, destroying them in his wake. Shadow ran up to one of mech and jumped off its head to successfully jump over the steel door. Shadow landed safely on the other side and looked back for a moment to watch the explosion made from the mechs he destroyed. "Shadow here. I have successfully infiltrated Eggman's base. Requesting mission instructions." Shadow said formally into his wrist communicator. "There's an SOS coming from Dr. Eggman's base. Our last communication with our agent was 26 hours ago. We expect an immediate rescue, Shadow." The G.U.N. commander responded. "Understood. Initiating the mission now." Shadow said. Shadow then used chaos control to teleport further into the base.

* * *

In the canyon part of the base, a couple white mechs were making their routine patrol around the base. "Perimeter is clear. Continuing search for intruder." One of the white mech said before moving on. While the white mechs started to walk away, one of the mechs metal feet then hit something solid in the snow. "Ow!" a muffled voice came from the snow. The white mechs stopped upon hearing the sound. One of the white mechs continued to kick at the object, but no sound came from it. Thinking it was noting, the white mechs just shrugged it off and continued their patrol. When the white mechs were gone, the object they kicked began to move and popped out of the ground. It was Rouge the Bat, who had a splitting headache from the mechs kicking at her head. "Ugh...note to self: never hide where others can trample you." Rouge said to herself.

After digging herself out of the snow, Rouge flew up to one of the cliffs in the canyon to get an update on her surroundings. It appeared that the only way she could get out was to go through the canyon. But, as usual, there was something to stop her. The whole canyon was filled with mechs, from white fighter mechs to red giant mechs, and to top it all off, there were several searchlights that would attract many mechs if spotted. "Well that might cause some problems. I better take out those searchlights if I want to make it out of here in one piece." Rouge said to herself. While Rouge wasn't looking, a red fighter mech walked up behind Rouge. Thanks to her ultra sensitive hearing, Rouge was able to hear the mechs movement and jump into the air before it fired its gun. Once Rouge was above it head, she quickly spun around at a fast pace, shouting "SCREW KICK!" Rouge's signature technique plowed straight through mechs chest and destroyed it. "That'll teach ya not to mess with a lady." Rouge said before flying off.

Rouge then landed on a cliff only a few yards from one of the searchlights. "This place is almost impossible to get by, almost." Rouge said with a wicked smile. Rouge then reached into the pouch she brought with her and pulled out a small grey orb. Rouge pushed a secret button at the top of the orb, causing it to turn red and begin to beep, like a bomb. "Let's see how you like this, boys." Rouge said as she threw the bomb at the tower holding the searchlight. The bomb latches itself at the foot of the tower and starts to beep even faster, which attracted the attention of the surrounding mechs. The mechs walked up to the bomb and started to examine it until the beeping finally stopped. "Uh oh." The mechs said, knowing what was going to happen next. The bomb then exploded, destroying not only the mechs, but the mechs as well. "That should keep them busy for a while." Rouge said before she flew off.

Thanks to the little distraction she created, Rouge was able to pass the searchlights without being detected. Rouge then landed in front of a steel door that most likely led to the inside of Eggman's base. There was good news and bad news on getting inside. The bad news was that the door required a password to open. But the good news was that Eggman never changes his passwords. "M-A-R-I-A. Maria." Rouge said out loud as she typed in the password. "Access granted." The computer said as it opened up the doors. "Always trust Eggman to never change his passwords." Rouge said as she walked into the room. "Yes. And you can also trust him to always have a backup plan." Eggman's voice came from the loudspeakers.

Just then, a large number of white mechs dropped from the ceiling and landed in front of her. "That's bad." Rouge stated the obvious. Just as the mechs were about to fire their guns, they were interrupted when a familiar voice could be heard. "CHAOS BLAST!!!" A pulse of red energy was released in the middle of the mech army and destroyed all the surrounding mechs, but was surprising stopped only a few inches away from Rouge. When the red energy disappeared, Rouge found Shadow standing in the middle of where the mechs used to be. "Shadow? What are you doing here?" Rouge questioned. Shadow walked over to her and said "I was sent here to save you as a request from the G.U.N. commander." "Thanks, but I don't need any rescuing. I can handle myself just fine." Rouge said stubbornly. "Whatever. Come on, let's move." Shadow said as the both started to walk away.

"Don't you want to know what this is?" Rouge asked suddenly. Shadow looked back for a moment to see Rouge holding up a silver glowing scepter. For some reason, Shadow felt small chill run up his spine from looking at the scepter, but shrugged it off. "My assignment was to rescue you. Nothing more." Shadow told her. "Fine. With you, its always business." Rouge said. "That's not true." Shadow retorted. "Oh yeah. Name one time you actually loosened up." Rouge challenged. "Uh..." Shadow could think of anything. While Shadow busy was thinking, three giant red mechs dropped from the sky and landed in front of the two. "It seems they don't want us to leave." Rouge said. "Let's just finish these things off." Shadow said. "Allow me." An unknown voice said.

Just then, a cloud of black smoke passed through the mech and sliced them in half. "What just happened?" Shadow asked, completely confused. The black smoke landed in front of the two and took the form of Erazor Djinn. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Erazor Djinn." Erazor informed them. "Well...thanks for the help." Rouge said uneasily, not trusting this newcomer at all. "Don't be thanking me just yet. As I last remember, you have something that belongs to me." Erazor said. "And that would be?" Shadow questioned. "The scepter of darkness." Erazor answered as he pointed at the scepter in Rouge's hands. "Forget it. Whatever you want with it, you won't have it." Shadow told him. "Then prepare for you demise, you filthy black rat." Erazor said as he unsheathed his razor blade.

Shadow jumped to punch Erazor, but surprisingly, his fist went straight through him. "What? It's an illusion." Shadow said. "Oh, I assure you, I am no illusion. Here, let me show you." Erazor said. Erazor then struck Shadow in his back multiple times with his razor blade and sent him flying back over ten feet. "Shadow!" Rouge shouted as she quickly ran to his side. "What just happened?" Shadow asked. "You fool. Without Arabian and Babylonian magic, you can't touch me." Erazor informed him. "Well, you're not the only one with tricks up his sleeve." Shadow said as he released one of his power rings from his wrist. As Shadow clutched the ring in his hand, Erazor charged and brought his razor blade down on them. "CHAO CONTROL" Shadow shouted before disappearing with Rouge, which cause Erazor to miss his target. "No!" Erazor shouted in anger. "The master isn't going to be happy about this." Erazor said quietly to himself.

* * *

Thanks to the powers of chaos control, Shadow and Rouge were transported into to the center of Eggman's base. Rouge took a good look around the room and saw a map of Soleanna on the main viewing screen. "Ah, Soleanna, the city of water. It has a constitutional monarchy, you know. The primary industries are tourism and crafting precision machinery." Rouge informed Shadow. Rouge looked over to Shadow, who was staring at an oil painting of the princess of Soleanna. "The current sovereign is Princess Elise the third." Rouge continued. "Why does Eggman's base have an odd place like this?" Shadow questioned. "How should I know? I'm just following my orders to retrieve this item." Rouge said as she held the scepter in plain sight.

"Hmm...Seeing as that Erazor Djinn person is after it, you will most likely need me to assist you." Shadow said. "Great, then can you help me bring this scepter to the G.U.N. rendezvous point?" Rouge asked. "And where is the rendezvous point?" Shadow questioned. Rouge then pointed to a section of the screen map that was far from the town. "It's the ancient castle of Soleanna in Kingdom Valley." Rouge informed him. "Then let's go." Shadow said as he grabbed her arm. "CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow shouted and disappeared along with Rouge.

* * *

Inside the forest outside of Eggman's base, Erazor was retreating until Black Doom blocked his path. "Look who it is. The great genie of evil arriving from the midst of failure." Black Doom said. "Cram it, you three-eyed freak! I didn't fail, that black rat merely found a hole to escape through!" Erazor exclaimed. "I warned you. That "rat" is craftier then he looks." Black Doom said. "Of course, you would know. You were killed by the rodent." Erazor said with a chuckle. "At least I wasn't defeated by a filthy green pigeon." Black Doom retorted. "I'm gonna..." Erazor was cut off. "Enough!" a harsh voice said.

The two looked over and saw their master moving out from behind the trees. "M-master." Erazor stuttered in fear. "Did you bring the scepter of darkness?" their master asked. "N-no." Erazor stuttered again. The mysterious master then pulled out Erazor's red and gold lamp and began to crush it in his hands. A surge of pain washed over Erazor and forced him to his knees. "I won't accept failure...from either of you." the mysterious master said as he kept a close eye on Black Doom. "Do not worry, master. I will retrieve the scepter of darkness for you." Black Doom offered. "No. Leave that to me. I have another job for you." the mysterious person said as he gave Black Doom the blue chaos emerald. "We will be expecting a visitor from the future here. I want you to test him and if he passes, give this to him." The mysterious person instructed. "As you wish." Black Doom said before using chaos control to disappear. "No matter what happens, I will not let you be resurrected, Mephiles" the mysterious person said.

* * *

**Please, read and review**


	2. Resurrection of Darkness

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Two: Resurrection of Darkness

In a flash of light, Shadow and Rouge appeared in the flooded section of Kingdom Valley. "This is Kingdom Valley? I can only imagine why G.U.N. would choose this place as a rendezvous point." Shadow said. "Hey, Shadow, up here!" Rouge called from the top of nearby stair case. Shadow walked up the stair case and saw Rouge standing in front of steel door blocking their path. "What's this doing here?" Shadow questioned. "Eggman must be planning to change this place into another base. It looks like this door requires three keys to open and I, being a natural-born treasure hunter, will find them." Rouge said. "Uh...Rouge?" Shadow tried to say to her, but she wasn't listening. "See ya in a bit, Shadow." Rouge said as she flew off. "Ugh, idiot." Shadow said as he released one of his power rings and clutched it in his hand.

Rouge was currently climbing on the side of one of the towers and looked through the stained-glass window to see one of the keys being guarded by five white mechs. "Hmm...It looks like the key is heavily guarded. Well I'm always up for a challenge" Rouge said with a smirk. Rouge reached into her pouch and placed one of her bombs on the window. The bomb exploded and Rouge quickly jumped into action. Rouge swooped down to one of the mechs and delivered a powerful kick to knock its head off. Three of the other mechs fired their guns at Rouge, but Rouge quickly ducked behind the remaining mech, who was destroyed by the gunshots. "Let see how you like these." Rouge said as she pulled out a number of bombs from her pouch. Rouge threw the bombs in front of the mechs and exploded to destroy them. "They never learn, do they?" Rouge said as she picked up the key and flew off.

Rouge discovered the second key in a small indent in the wall south of the tower. The only problem was that the key was guarded by hot burning lasers. "Now just how am I supposed to get past that?" Rouge asked herself. Rouge's ear picked up the sound of laser fire and quickly jumped back before she was hit. Rouge looked up the wall and saw four red crab mechs climbing on the side. "Well that's new." Rouge commented. The crab mechs turned their heads and fired lasers at Rouge, who quickly took to the skies to avoid them. "Oh boys." Rouge called out from above. Rouge then pulled out a bomb out of her pouch and placed it on the wall on top of the mechs before flying to safety. The bomb Rouge placed exploded and sent several piece of rubble crashing down on the mech to crush them. Thanks to the sudden explosion from Rouge's bomb, the key was released from the laser defense and was thrown into the air. Rouge quickly catches the key and says "Two down, one to go."

Rouge found the final key inside a laser shield cage and was surprisingly unguarded. "Hmm...You would think Egg-head would keep all his important items under heavy security." Rouge said as she walked up to the control console. The console needed a password, which even a brain-dead monkey could figure out. "M-A-R-I-A. Maria." Rouge said as she typed in the password. The laser shield fell and Rouge picked up the key inside. "You would that after all this time; Eggman would at least change his password." Rouge said while smiling in victory. But her celebration was short lived when a red walker mech jumped out of the water and landed in front of Rouge. "It's never easy." Rouge commented. The walker fired lasers out of its arms, which Rouge quickly avoided by flying into air. Rouge spun around at a fast pace and shouted "SCREW KICK!" Using her signature move, Rouge plowed through the walker chest to destroy it before flying away.

Rouge flew back to the door where she first started and found that Shadow was no longer there. "I can't believe he ditched me. Just goes to show you, you can never trust anyone. Especially a socially challenged hedgehog." Rouge said to herself. Rouge placed the three keys inside the hole and the door instantly flung open. As Rouge walked through the door, she found Shadow leaning on the wall next to her. "What?! How did you get over here?!" Rouge exclaimed. Shadow held up his arm to show his power rings and simply said "Chaos control." Rouge instantly smacked herself in the face for not realizing that she could have avoided all the trouble if she stayed with Shadow and used chaos control. "Come on, we've wasted enough time here." Shadow said as he started to walk away with Rouge following close behind.

Shadow and Rouge reached a dead end when the rest of the walk way was flooded. "The rendezvous point should just up ahead." Rouge informed him. "Why am I not surprised?" Shadow asked himself. "I can fly over this flood, but how are you going to get across?" Rouge asked her ebony companion. "You're not going to help me across?" Shadow asked her. "Forget it! There is no way I am carrying you all the way there!" Rouge exclaimed. "Relax, I was only asking. I don't need your help to get across." Shadow told her. "Huh?" Rouge looked at Shadow, very confused. Shadow walked over to the water and, to Rouge's surprise, was actually standing on top of the water. "But how?" Rouge asked. Shadow smirks for a moment before point to his air skates. "You think you're all that, don't you?" Rouge said. "Pretty much." Shadow said before racing across the water.

Shadow was racing across the water and found the area to be quiet. Too quiet. Shadow suddenly stopped, which quickly caught Rouge's attention. "What's wrong, Shadow?" Rouge asked. "This is too easy." Shadow answered. "Maybe Eggman's robots have finally given up." Rouge said as she continued to fly towards her destination. Just then, two flying mechs popped out of the water and aimed their guns at Rouge's head. Lucky for her, Shadow used his speed to get between them and plow his fists into their cores. "I told you it was too easy." Shadow said. An explosion could be heard from above their heads and the two looked up to see one of the towers falling directly towards them. "Move!" Rouge exclaimed. "Too late!" Shadow shouted as the fallen tower had collapsed on them.

A few minute later, Eggman's flying mechs were searching the water for any sign of Shadow or Rouge. Eggman's flying television floated down towards the mechs. "Well?" Eggman asked. "Targets are still missing." The flying mech answered. "Well then find them. I want to make sure they are permanently out of the picture." Eggman commanded. "Yes, sir!" the flying mechs said before they scattered again. But while they were searching in the water, Shadow and Rouge were hiding in a secret tunnel. "It's a good thing that tower missed us, or we would be dead." Rouge said. "It's too risky to walk the rest of the way with Eggman's machines searching the entire area." Shadow said. "So how do we reach the rendezvous point?" Rouge asked. To answer her question, Shadow released one of the power rings on his risk and clutched it in his hand. Shadow grabbed Rouge by her arm and lifts the ring in the air, shouting "CHAOS CONTROL!" And in a flash of light, Shadow and Rouge vanished.

* * *

Using chaos control, Shadow and Rouge found themselves in an old ruined building hidden in the valley forest. For some reason, Shadow felt that he had been here before. "What is this place?" Shadow asked. "The former ruler of Soleanna used this place as a castle during his rule. But a major accident occurred ten years ago and no one has been here since." Rouge informed him. "Accident?" Shadow asked. "I heard a prototype energy engine failed, which caused the accident. The think the name of the plan was..." Rouge was cut off. "The Solaris Project." Eggman's voice could be heard from the sky. Shadow and Rouge looked up and saw Eggman flying down to them in his new Eggmobile. "It was an ambitious project named after their eternal sun god." Eggman told them. "Eggman!" Shadow exclaimed. "It has been awhile since I last saw you two. Now, if you'd be so kind as to hand back the scepter of darkness you took from me." Eggman said. "Never." Rouge told him. "Very well." Eggman said as he snapped his fingers. 

On command, a numerous amount of white mechs surrounded the two. The white mechs aimed their gun and quickly opened fire on them. Acting fast, Shadow used his speed to avoid the attacks while Rouge flew up into the air. Unknown to any of them, Black Doom and Erazor Djinn's mysterious master was watching the entire battle from atop the building wall. "I will not let you escape, Mephiles." The mysterious person said as he gathered a great amount of blue chaos energy in his hand and shot it at Rouge. The sudden attack caught Rouge by surprise and hit her directly in the back. Rouge spiraled downwards towards the ground, dropping the scepter along the way. Seeing the Rouge was dropping fast, Shadow quickly dived to catch her, but was not fast enough to catch the scepter. "NO!" Eggman and the mysterious person shouted simultaneously. The scepter hit the ground and, miraculously, did not break, making the mysterious person sigh in relief. The scepter then began to crack and the mysterious person said "Damn it!"

The scepter released a pulse of energy that short-circuited al the mechs. Shadow walked up to try and touch the scepter, but just being near it caused his body to feel extremely cold. Just then, a large trail of darkness escaped from the scepter and started attacking the mechs. "No, this cannot be! I can't stay here!" Eggman exclaimed as he cowardly flew away. "Damn, I failed. Now it's all up to Sonic, Shadow, and Silver to save the day." The mysterious person said before vanishing in a black hole. After finishing with the mechs, the trail of darkness was headed for Shadow's direction. But instead of attacking him, it faded away in his shadow. Not long after, the shadow soon expanded and came to life in a puff of black smoke. "What in the world is that?" Rouge asked herself. When the smoke disappeared, another Shadow was standing in front of them, only it had lighter fur, grey highlights, and no mouth. The mysterious Shadow copy looked up at the real Shadow and began to laugh crazily, deeply confusing Shadow and Rouge

"Oh, how ironic fate can be. I would never have believed I would be resurrected through your shade. I thank you, Shadow the Hedgehog. " The Shadow copy said as he gave a formal bow to Shadow. "Who are you? How do you know my name?" Shadow questioned. "I am Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark." Mephiles answered as he used his new body to move towards Shadow. "What? Did you forget me?" Mephiles asked before stopping in front of Shadow. "I owe so much to you, Shadow. Oh yes." Mephiles said in a low voice. Mephiles stared at Shadow with his green, demonic eyes. Those eyes, they sent huge chills down Shadow's spine, it felt like he was frozen. It was like looking in the face of death. For the first time since he met Black Doom, Shadow was afraid. "Now I shall repay you." Mephiles said as he formed a purple ball of energy in his hand. "What you gave to me, I now return to you! A one-way ticket to oblivion!" Mephiles exclaimed as he threw the ball of energy into the air. The ball of energy soon expanded to engulf everyone and disappear.

* * *

**Please, read and review**


	3. The World's Future

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Three: The World's Future

The purple ball of energy reappeared again with Shadow and Rouge jumping out of it. Rouge went to look out one of the broken windows nearby and saw a city in total ruins. The skies were as black as Shadow's fur and the entire city was covered in flames and lava. "What is this place?" Rouge questioned. "It seems we have been teleported to another location." Shadow guessed. "Well, let's find out where we are." Rouge said before she ran off. Shadow stayed behind for a moment to collect his thoughts. "Mephiles...who is he? I feel like I know him from somewhere. But the question is, where?" Shadow asked himself. "Hey, Shadow! Come here, I think I found something!" Rouge called from down the hall. Shadow broke from his chain of thoughts and followed Rouge to a small room down the hall.

Rouge took Shadow into a room with a large computer on the wall. Rouge tried to access the computer, but the trouble was that it needed a password. "It will take a while before I can find the password for this thing." Rouge told him. "We don't have time; we need to find out where we are and what's happened to this city." Shadow said sternly. "Well then, what do you think the password is smart guy?" Rouge said stubbornly. "Try, Maria." Shadow told her. "Fine. M-A-R-I-A, Maria." Rouge said as she typed in the password. To her surprise, the password was accepted and the computer data base opened up. "Wha? How did you know, Shadow?" Rouge asked. Shadow pointed to the top of the computer and Rouge looked up to see Eggman symbol.

"Then that means we're still in Dr. Eggman's base. But how is that possible?" Rouge questioned. "I think I might know." Shadow said as he walked up the computer and started accessing its files. "Just as I thought. It's not where we are, it's when we are." Shadow said. "What do you mean?" Rouge asked. "I would appear that we have travel through time itself." Shadow put it simply. "To where exactly?" Rouge asked. "Approximately 200 years in the future. Maybe even more, depending on when this database was last updated." Shadow told her. "Well, at least we know we've arrived in the future. That means this "Mephiles" character has the power to travel and control time" Rouge said. "His power feels strangely similar to that of my own chaos control. But..." Shadow was cut off when the heard three loud thuds coming from outside.

* * *

In a brilliant flash of red light, Sonic, tails, and Knuckles dropped from the ceiling into the new world. Sonic and Tails were able to land on their feet, but Knuckles was unfortunate enough to land on his head. "Ow." Knuckles said as he rubbed his aching head. "It's a good thing nothing's in there." Sonic chuckled. Knuckles was about to beat Sonic to a pulp until. "Oh, look who's here. I didn't expect to see you guys here." Rouge's voice came from above. Sonic and the others looked up to see Shadow and Rouge standing in a room just above them. "Rouge! Shadow!" Tails exclaimed. "Hi. Long time, no see. And I really mean long time." Rouge said.

Sonic, Shadow and the others met up later outside the Eggman's former base and looked out to the destroyed city that was once Soleanna. "This is the distant future, far removed from our own timeline." Shadow explained. "The future? Then that means Eggman's machine can control time!" Tails exclaimed. "Eggman's got some nerve dropping us here." Sonic said. "Now, how can we get back to our own time?" Knuckles asked. "You need and space-time rift, but this requires a lot of energy. More specifically, chaos energy." Shadow explained. "I get it. You mean by using your chaos control..." Sonic was cut off. "I do mean chaos control, but my power alone is insufficient." Shadow said. "Ok, Shadow. It looks like we're working together again. Just like old times." Sonic said. "We'll split up into to teams and each of us will recover one chaos emerald from this city." Shadow instructed. "Alright, then I get Knuckie." Rouge said as she latched on to Knuckles arm. "Fine with me." Knuckles said with a big smile on his face. "Come on." Shadow said as he began to drag Rouge away by her ears. "Let's go Knuckie." Sonic said as he started to drag Knuckles by his dreadlocks.

* * *

"Hey! Let go!" Rouge yelled at Shadow, who was still dragging here by her ears. "Fine. Shadow said as he let go of her. "Just what was that all about?" Rouge said angrily. "We have to find the chaos emeralds and return to our own timeline before it's too late. We couldn't afford to have you be distracted." Shadow calmly explained his intentions. "You think that knucklehead would distract me?" Rouge questioned. "Yes." Shadow answered simply. "Well I'll have you know that no one, not even that knucklehead can distract me distract. I didn't even want to be on his team anyway." Rouge said stubbornly. "You called him Knuckie and latched yourself to his arm." Shadow recalled the events that just happened a few minutes ago. Rouge's face turned completely red from Shadow remark and tried to retort, but couldn't think of anything g to say. Shadow smirked, knowing he had won and then felt an unusually strong chaos energy coming from the sky. Shadow looked up and saw Silver fly by with Blaze following close behind on the rooftops. "That might be worth looking into." Shadow said as he started to chase Silver with Rouge following him.

Shadow and Rouge stopped chasing Silver when they reached a dead end that fell straight into a lava pit. The two looked at the direction Silver went and saw a large tornado of flames that erupted from the earth. "A tornado of flame? Now that's a strange sight." Rouge commented. The tornado of flames soon disappeared and was replaced by a large humanoid monster made of lava and rocks with four long arms and an armored demon head. "And that's an even stranger sight." Shadow said. While Shadow was staring at the ferocious lava monster, Rouge's ears picked up something swooping down towards them. "Shadow, duck!" Rouge shouted before she pulled Shadow to the ground. Shadow and Rouge stood up again and looked back to see a number of lava tigers and fire birds. "Things just never seem to go our way." Rouge complained.

Rouge flew into the air and quickly was surrounded by the fire birds. "You guys wouldn't hit a lady now, would you?" Rouge said. Just as she said that, the fire birds started diving at her, only missing by inches. "I'll take that as a yes!" Rouge exclaimed as she flew away to escape. Rouge looked back and saw that the fire birds were following close behind her. "They just don't give. Such is the curse of being so beautiful." Rouge said, inflating her ego even more. Rouge quickly dived behind a large piece of rubble and waited for the fire birds to get closer. When the fire birds were close enough, Rouge lifted the piece of rubble up to create a wall, which all the fire birds crashed into. "Better luck next time." Rouge said as she let go of the rubble to let it fall on the fire birds.

Shadow was fighting the lava tigers, but seemed very bored with them. One of the lava tigers jumped at Shadow, but Shadow just grabbed the lava tiger by its head and threw it behind him. Another lava tiger lunged at Shadow, but Shadow just kicked it away like it was nothing. "I grow bored with these games." Shadow said. Shadow raised his hand and several arrows of yellow light formed around him. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow shouted as the yellow arrows flew towards the lava tigers and destroyed them. When all the lava tigers were gone, a green chaos emerald was found on the ground where they used to be. "Well looky what we've found here." Rouge said as she dropped down next to Shadow and picked up the chaos emerald. "That's only one emerald. One more and we should be able to get back to our time. Let's go." Shadow told her as he started walking down the street.

Shadow and Rouge were still walking down the street, but Rouge was too busy looking at the chaos emerald in her hand. "My precious emerald. You are all so beautiful. Your mysterious brilliance." Rouge said to the emerald. Shadow looked at Rouge like she was crazy. Was she actually talking to the chaos emerald? Shadow looked back down the road and what he saw came to a shock to him. Kumori was sitting on the ground next to one of the destroyed buildings. "Kumori!" Shadow shouted as he ran to her side. Shadow was expecting Kumori to jump at him and hug him to death like she normal does, but she didn't. "Kumori, can you hear me?" Shadow asked her, but received no reaction. Shadow looked into Kumori's eyes and saw that she was still alive, but something was wrong. "What's wrong with her?" Shadow asked Rouge, obviously concerned for Kumori. "My guess is that she is in a traumatic state. But my question is; what could have been so horrible to cause something like this?" Rouge said.

Just then, Rouge's wrist communicator started beeping. "This is Rouge." Rouge said into the communicator. While Rouge was busy talking, Shadow continued to watch Kumori. What could have caused this? Why did this happen to her? These questions kept buzzing around in his mind, finding no answers to them. "Understood. We'll be there in a minute." Rouge said. "It looks like Sonic and his friends my have found something too. Let's go." Rouge told him. Shadow did not even attempt to move from traumatic Kumori. "Shadow, it's too late for her. We have to move on." Rouge said. Shadow looked back at Rouge for a moment before taking one last look at his female prototype. "Yeah." Shadow said in a depressing manner before starting to walk away. Rouge took once last look at Kumori before chasing after Shadow. "I'm sorry, Kumori." Shadow said silently.

* * *

**Please, read and review**


	4. Meeting with Iblis

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Four: Meeting with Iblis

Shadow and Rouge were waiting in a ridge close to a river of hot lava close to an active volcano. Shadow was still depressed that he failed to help Kumori and Rouge was trying everything she could to snap him out of it. Just then, Sonic and his friends decided to show up. "You know, for the fastest thing alive, you are so slow, Sonic." Rouge said. "Hey!" Sonic exclaimed. "Never mind that. Look what we found." Rouge said as she held up the chaos emerald to plain view. "You found one of the chaos emeralds!" Tails exclaimed. "Of course. I may not look like one, but I'm a real treasure hunter. Unlike a certain echidna we all know." Rouge taunted. "What was that?!" Knuckles said angrily as he held his namesake dangerously close to Rouge's face. "That's enough!" Shadow said sternly, finally breaking out of his depression state. Knuckles looked at to Rouge for a moment before turning away.

"Have you guys found anything?" Shadow asked. "Yeah, I received a signal indicating that there's a chaos emerald somewhere inside that volcano." Tails told the group. "You're kidding! You mean we have to go all the way through there?" Rouge complained. "If you don't like it, you can stay here." Knuckles taunted. "You have got to be kidding! There is no way I am leaving an idiot like you in there, alone." Rouge retorted, which made Knuckles even more angry (If that's possible). "It would probably be better if we split up and covered more ground." Shadow instructed. "Don't be late." Sonic said. "Same to you." Shadow said to him. Just as they planned, Sonic went with Tails and Knuckles one way, while Shadow went with Rouge down another.

* * *

Shadow and Rouge were currently walking down the path they've chosen until Shadow suddenly stopped. "What's the matter, Shadow?" Rouge asked. "Just look at it, the volcano." Shadow said. Rouge looked at the active volcano and asks "Yeah, what about it?" "The volcano's energy is completely out of control. I don't know what it is, but I defiantly know it's not the chaos emerald that's causing it." Shadow said. "That's impossible. What else could cause a natural disaster like this?" Rouge questioned. "I don't know, but it's powerful." Shadow said. Just then, several gigantic fireballs spat out of the lava into two separate directions. "That's strange. It looks like those fire balls are headed straight...for...us!" Rouge yelled as the fire balls were indeed headed towards them. 

Acting fast, Shadow grabbed Rouge by her arm to pull her away from the direction of the fire ball that was about to hit her. "Ok, I believe you." Rouge said to him. The two look up and saw more fireballs headed their way. "Move!" Shadow shouted. Seeing that the fireballs were moving to fast for her, Shadow quickly grabbed Rouge and carried her in his arms while trying to run away. "Whoa, slow down, partner. Not on the first date." Rouge said in a flirtatious manner. "Shut up." Shadow said sternly. Shadow looked back at the fire balls that were chasing them for a moment without noticing the large loop in front. "Shadow!" Rouge yelled to get his attention. Shadow looked forward to see the loop and only smirked. "You better not be doing what I think you're doing!" Rouge exclaimed. "Hold on." Shadow told her as he sped up. Using his added speed to his advantage, Shadow went straight up and then down without falling out of the loop before using a speed boast that was conveniently there to reach another part of the ridge.

When Shadow landed, he quickly dumped Rouge on the ground. "Whoa, what a ride." Rouge said dizzily. Shadow scanned his surroundings for any sign of a way to reach the volcano. The only thing looked like it could help was an extra large speed boast pointed in the direction of the volcano. "That's strange. It's almost as if someone is leading us to the volcano." Shadow thought suspiciously. "Hey, what's wrong, Shadow?" Rouge asked as she noticed Shadow's expression. "Nothing. Come on." Shadow said to her as he started walking towards the speed boost. Just as they were walking, numerous lava tigers and fire birds jumped out of the many lava pits surrounding them. "Ugh, don't we see enough of these guys?" Rouge complained. "Apparently not." Shadow said as he moved into his fighting stance.

Rouge took to the skies with the fire birds following close behind. "This will be just as easy as last time." Rouge said confidently as she looked back at the fire birds chasing her. But while she was looking back, Rouge didn't notice a single fire bird swoop down in front of her and bash her over the head with its wing. The sudden attack caused Rouge to spiral downwards to the ground at an alarmingly fast pace. At the last second, Rouge opened her wings to catch a brief gust of wind and glided for a moment before fling back into the air. "My, attacking a lady. Shame on you." Rouge said as the fire birds made another attempt to attack. Rouge quickly reached into her pouch and threw red metal balls at the fire birds, who easily caught them in their beaks. "Bye-bye." Rouge said with a smirk as she pulled out a small electronic button. Rouge pressed the button, which caused all the red balls to beep at a fast pace. "Uh oh." The fire birds said before they blew up.

Back with Shadow, he was currently avoiding the many lava tigers that were lunging at him in every direction. "I have had enough of this." Shadow said. Shadow dodged another lava tiger and quickly grabbed it by its tail to throw it back at another that was about to hit him. Over a hundred yellow arrows formed around Shadow as he yells "CHAOS SPEAR!" The yellow arrow fly off in multiply direction, destroy every one of the lava tigers like last time. "You would think they'd learn from their past mistakes." Shadow said. As Rouge swooped down to land next to Shadow, a large golem of lava and rocks jumped out one of the lava pits to land in front of the two. "Well that's new." Rouge commented.

The lava golem formed a spiked ball of rock in its hand and threw it at the duo. Shadow used his speed to dodge, while Rouge quickly flew up in the sky. "SCREW KICK!" Rouge shouted as she used her signature technique on the monsters chest, but found it to be ineffective. "That's not good." Rouge said. The lava golem created another spiked ball and used it as a mace to bash Rouge to the wall. "Rouge!" Shadow exclaimed. Shadow stared at the golem with angry eyes as it began to advance towards Rouge. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow yelled as he used his famous attack on the lava golem, but the monster just shrugged it off. The lava golem grabbed Rouge around her waist and slowly started to crush her. "Aah!" Rouge yelled in pain. "Rouge! That does it!" Shadow yelled as he removed his power rings. "I lost one friend already and I am not about to lose another!" Shadow exclaimed. Shadow gather a huge amount of chaos energy in both hands and brought them together to form one giant yellow arrow. "CHAOS LANCE!" Shadow yelled as he threw the arrow at the lava golem. The powerful attack pierced straight through its rock armor to destroy it, which gave Rouge a chance to escape.

Rouge picked up the power rings and handed them to Shadow, who collapsed to his knees from the immense energy drain. "Wow, Shadow! I had no idea you could do that outside you super form." Rouge said, obviously impressed at how powerful Shadow had become after only being awaked six months ago. "Me...neither." Shadow panted as he grabbed the rings and placed them back on his wrists. "We should get moving. We don't want Sonic and the others to beat us there." Rouge told him. "Right." Shadow said as he got back to his feet. Shadow picked up Rouge and ran at top speed towards the speed boost, which sent him flying straight towards the volcanoes mouth.

* * *

Sonic and Shadow's group were flying towards the mouth of the volcano, but unfortunately they crashed into each other and were caught in an awkward pile-up. "Hey watch it!" Sonic yelled. "Watch the tail!" Tails exclaimed. "Someone get their foot out of my face!" Shadow shouted. "Who's touching my chest?!" Rouge said angrily. "Sorry." Knuckles apologized. Rouge slapped Knuckles across the face for that. After taking a few awkward moments, the group finally broke apart and looked around to find themselves standing in front of a large lava pit. The strange thing was that the pit was dark and the only thing lighting it was the lava and three glowing orbs. Rouge then noticed something else glowing in the pit. It was the light blue chaos emerald. Rouge flew up into the air to grab it. "Looks like I found another chaos emerald." Rouge said. "Don't touch it!" Shadow warned her, but it was too late. When Rouge touched the emerald, a gigantic lava worm popped out of the lava, which knocked Rouge back to the group. "What's that?" Sonic questioned. "No good. I can tell you that." Shadow told him before he jumped on to one of the rock platforms with Sonic joining. "Ready, pal?" Sonic asked. "Always." Shadow replied. 

The lava worm reeled its head back for a moment before throwing it forward and shooting several fire balls at the two. Think fast, Sonic and Shadow jumped to two nearby rock platforms to avoid the attack. "Can't say I was expecting that." Sonic said. Shadow looked forward at the lava worm and saw that it had disappeared. "Where did it go?" Shadow questioned. He received an answer when the lava worm popped out from under the platform, sending Shadow flying. "Shadow!" Sonic called out. The lava worm then turned to Sonic. Sonic jumped into the air and used his homing attack on the creature, only to be bounced back to the rock platform. "That's bad." Sonic said as the lava worm's mouth came closer to him.

Meanwhile, Shadow then fell on one of the glowing orbs and broke it, releasing the light that was trapped within it. the lava worm stopped its attack on Sonic and looked back at the light, completely mesmerized by it. The lava worm left Sonic and jumped to attack the platform where Shadow and the light were at. Acting fast, Shadow quickly jumped to another platform with another light orb as the lava worm devoured the platform and the light. Sonic jumps on the same platform as Shadow and asks "What just happened?" "The light. It must be attracted to the light. That gives me an idea." Shadow said. "Well then, let's hear it." Sonic said. As Shadow was explaining his plan, the lava worm came back up and looked around for Sonic and Shadow. "Ready?" Shadow asked. "Always." Sonic replied. Shadow then broke the orb with his fist, which released the light within it. the lava worm saw the light and jumped in the air and opened its mouth to devour it. "Now! CHAOS SPEAR!" "SONIC WIND!" Sonic and Shadow yelled out their signature attacks and sent them into the creatures mouth. Both attacks together caused the creature to cry out in pain and fall back into the lava in defeat. When the lava worm fell, the chaos emerald popped out of the lava and landed into Sonic's hands. "All right!" Sonic shouted victoriously.

* * *

A few minutes later, Sonic, Shadow, and the others returned to the spot where they started with Sonic and Shadow holding the chaos emeralds. Sonic and Shadow cross their hands and shouts "CHAOS CONTROL!" The combined chaos control created a white vortex behind the group, which most likely led them back to their own time period. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles jumped into the vortex, shortly followed by Rouge. Shadow was about to jump in with them until he felt a familiar chill going down his spine. "I see you have defeated Iblis. Very impressive." An all-too familiar voice said from behind. Shadow looked back to find Mephiles appear in a puff of black smoke. "But he was nothing more then a mindless puppet. If you want a real challenge, then follow me." Mephiles said as he started to run towards the volcano. Shadow was about to decline, but then thought he might hold the answers of what happen to this world and Kumori. Shadow had decided and chased after Mephiles as his only way home disappeared.

* * *

**Please, read and review**


	5. Shadow's Future

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Five: Shadow's Future

In the central plaza of the town of Soleanna, a white vortex appeared in midair with Rouge dropping down from it. Rouge quickly scanned her surroundings and was relieved to find that they were back in their own time period. "Well, looks like we made it back in one piece, Shadow." Rouge said. Rouge received no reply from her black hedgehog companion. "Shadow?" Rouge questioned. Rouge looked around to find that her friend did not come back with her. On the ground in front of her was the green chaos emerald that Shadow used to create the time vortex. Rouge picked up the chaos emerald with a worried expression on her face. "Shadow...and he doesn't have a chaos emerald anymore. How is he going to get back?" Rouge questioned. Just then, Rouge's wrist communicator started beeping, so she answered it. It was the G.U.N. commander.

"Agent Rouge? Report your status immediately. Were you able to retrieve the scepter of darkness?" The G.U.N. commander asked. "Well...I'll provide you a full report later." Rouge told him, not wanting to spend time explaining how the scepter broke and a time traveling demon was released from it. "I still have to figure a way to get Shadow back. But how can I do that? It's not like I can wait for over 200 years." Rouge said in her mind. That's when it hit her. There was only one person on the planet that could live for over 200 years and would do anything to help Shadow. "Uh...commander, I have something to ask you." Rouge said. "What is it, Rouge?" The G.U.N. commander asked. "I have a priority situation to deal with right now. I need the location of a certain G.U.N. agent, immediately." Rouge requested. "And that would be?" The G.U.N. commander asked. "Kumori the Hedgehog." Rouge replied.

* * *

In the tropical jungle west of the town of Soleanna, Kumori the Hedgehog climbed up one of the trees and scouted the area, like she was looking for something or someone. "Ugh, where is Amy? She said she would be here, so why isn't she here?" Kumori asked herself. "When I find Amy I am gonna..." Kumori trailed off, trying to calm her growing anger. "I presume this "Amy" person is a friend of yours." A woman's voice came from below, which caught Kumori by surprise. The surprise caused Kumori to slip off the tree and land on her back. "I'm ok." Kumori said out loud as she jumped to her feet to find Rouge. "This is a charming place you picked." Rouge said. "Rouge? What are you doing here?" Kumori asked. "Well, I need your help. It's about Shadow." Rouge said. Just the mention of Shadow's name was all Kumori needed to set her off. "What happened to my Shadow?!" Kumori exclaimed as she started shaking vigorously. "Calm down so I can tell you!" Rouge shouted. Kumori did as Rouge said and let go of so she could explain.

A couple of minutes later, Rouge had just finished explaining the situation to Kumori. "So this "Mephiles" guy transported Shadow to the future and now he trapped there." Kumori summed it up. "Yep." Rouge replied. "So what do you want me to do about it?" Kumori asked. "If I remember correctly, Professor Gerald created you to have the gift of eternal youth like Shadow." Rouge said as she handed the chaos emerald to Kumori. "Take this and deliver it to Shadow. I have a feeling he's going to need all the help he can get." Rouge said. "You got it. I'm coming, Shadow!" Kumori yelled as she used her super speed to run off to an unknown location.

* * *

200 years in the future, Shadow was still chasing Mephiles until he found himself in another location of the volcano. Mephiles was standing on a high rock, looking down towards Shadow. "So, decided to void your return ticket home now, did you?" Mephiles mockingly asked. "Why are you here? Did you ruin this world? Was it you that forced Kumori into that state of trauma?" Shadow continually asked. "The answers are yes and no." Mephiles said in riddles. Shadow looked at Mephiles in confusion, wondering what he could mean by that. Mephiles saw Shadow's confused expression and says "Perhaps it would be better if I show you. Turn around." Shadow did as Mephiles said and around turned to find a very shocking image. Bound to a rock behind Shadow was a dead creature that had a metal pole piercing through its heart. Shadow was shocked to discover that very creature was...himself.

"Yes. That is you, Shadow." Mephiles said in a cruel manner. "After the world was devastated by Iblis' flames, what do you think happened? A search for the guilty. Who did this you may ask. Well, I think that would be obvious." Mephiles continued. Shadow continued to stare at his future self's dead body while listening to Mephiles' speech. "Humanity wasn't just jealous of your power. They feared it. They used this incident as an excuse to hunt you down and kill you." Mephiles continued, his voice growing more vile by the second. "Come with me, Shadow. Let us punish this foolish world of humanity. It's only fair to give back what was intended for you. You have every right to want justice." Mephiles persuaded. Shadow stared at his future self and thought about what Mephiles just said and came up with only one answer. "No." Shadow replied. "What?!" Mephiles shouted in surprise. "What ever it is you want to do, you can do it alone." Shadow said. "You forgive humanity for this folly?" Mephiles questioned. "I refuse to believe that this is my future. I determine my own destiny. And as long is I have friends like Sonic and Kumori, nothing you can do will stop me!" Shadow exclaimed.

When Shadow was finished, Mephiles began to laugh maniacally. "What a touching speech. It certainly warms my heart. That is...if I had one." Mephiles said before his body gave off a flash of light. Shadow covered his eyes to shield them from the light and than looked back when the light was gone. "So this is your true form." Shadow said. Mephiles' true form had a similar body structure of Shadow, but his appearance was different. Mephiles entire body was a dark purple color with grey highlights all over his body, no mouth, blood red eyes with green demon pupils, crystal shape on his chest and crystal spines coming from the back of his head. "Very well. If that is your choice, then it appears you must die...again." Mephiles said

Mephiles jumped off from the rock to land in front of Shadow, but instead of touching the ground, Mephiles fell through and became Shadow's shadow. "Let's see you try to defeat something that is a part of you." Mephiles challenged. Just then, small black imps started appearing from the darkness and lunged at Shadow. Shadow jumped back to avoid one of the imps, but another one jumped on his back. Shadow quickly grabbed the imp by its head and threw towards another group that was attacking him. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow shouted as over a hundred yellow arrows formed and struck the imps to destroy them. "Looks like you minions aren't so tough." Shadow said to Mephiles. "Don't be so sure." Mephiles said. Suddenly, a hoard of imps jumped out from Mephiles and dog piled on to Shadow. Mephiles reformed himself and laughed as he watched the imps devour Shadow slowly. "And so ends the great legacy of Shadow the Hedgehog." Mephiles said confidently.

Just when Mephiles thought he had won, a red flash came from the imp pile and destroyed them all. "What?!" Mephiles shouted in surprise. Standing where the imps were was Shadow, who's body was completely covered in red chaos energy. "What is this?!" Mephiles exclaimed. "This is a little trick I like to call chaos boost." Shadow said with a smirk. Mephiles stepped back for a moment and when he did, Shadow vanished. Mephiles searched around for Shadow, but quickly found him when Shadow kicked him in the jaw and to send him hurtling into the air. "Let's see how you like this." Shadow said as he disappeared again. Shadow then reappeared ten feet above Mephiles and changed into his ball form. Shadow spun around at a super fast pace and charged downwards towards Mephiles to hit him in the back and plow him into the ground. Shadow returned to his normal form and jumped away a few feet as he watched Mephiles try to get up, only to fall back down.

"You're finished Mephiles." Shadow said. "I...think...not!" Mephiles exclaimed as he surprisingly regained his strength and got back to his feet. Once back on his feet, Mephiles released a purple field of energy the sent Shadow crashing into the rock Mephiles was standing on earlier. Shadow fell to the ground and became surprisingly weak from that single attack. It was obvious that Mephiles was more powerful then Shadow had expected. "Rule one in battle: never let your guard down. Especially when your fighting an immortal demon" Mephiles chuckled as he walked closer to Shadow. Right when Mephiles over Shadow and tried to grab him, an unknown leg came out of nowhere and kicked Mephiles across the face, sending him flying over five feet away. Shadow looked up and smiled in happiness at who his rescuer was. "Kumori!" Shadow exclaimed. "Hi, Shadow." Kumori said happily. "You dare to strike me!" Mephiles shouted in anger. "Stay back, Shadow. I'll take care of him." Kumori said confidently as she sttod to face Mephiles. "Kumori, no!" Shadow shouted to try and stop her. "Very well. Prepare to die." Mephiles said venomously.

Kumori charged at Mephiles and gave a roundhouse kick that Mephiles dodged by ducking down. "Now your mine." Mephiles said as he placed his hand on Kumori's shadow. But to his surprise, nothing happened. "What?!" Mephiles shouted in surprise. Kumori spun around and delivered another roundhouse kick that Mephiles hit in the face and sent him back ten feet. "How? How are you able to become immune to my manipulations?" Mephiles questioned. "I know everything about you, Mephiles. You were created from Shadow's shadow. Since Shadow had no shadow, you were able to become it and draw energy from him, slowly draining him of his power." Kumori explained. "Of course. That's why I felt so weak." Shadow concluded in his head. "But since I do have a shadow, you can't drain my energy. Which means, your finished." Kumori said with a wicked smile. "Uh oh." Mephiles said. Kumori charged at Mephiles and launch a barrage of punches to his chest before delivering a powerful uppercut to his jaw, which sent him fly a few feet away. It looked as if Mephiles was truly defeated.

"You did well, Kumori." Shadow said as he walked next to Kumori. Big mistake. The second Shadow was next to her, Kumori brought Shadow into a bone breaking hug. "Oh, thank you, Shadow." Kumori said happily. "Can't...breath." Shadow managed to gasp out. "Don't think this is over." Mephiles said as he weakly got up. Kumori released Shadow, who stared at Mephiles with eyes filled with the same kind of hatred he only gave to Black Doom. "This is far from over. It is only the beginning." Mephiles said as he formed a ball of purple energy in his hand. Mephiles expanded the ball over his head, which he used to escape. "Oh no, you don't!" Shadow exclaimed as he and Kumori jumped in the ball of energy to chase after him.

* * *

**Please, read and review**


	6. The Ultimate Hedgehog

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Six: The Ultimate Hedgehog

In the warehouse section of the town of Soleanna, a ball of purple energy appears in midair with Shadow and Kumori jumping down from it. Shadow looked around to find out that his is back in his original time period, but Mephiles was not with them. "Mephiles must have escaped to another time or place." Shadow concluded. "Well then we have to find him. Once we do, I'll destroy him!" Kumori said with a mixture or hatred and determination in her voice. "What's with her? I have never seen Kumori act like this before." Shadow said in his mind. It was true, Kumori never showed this kind of anger to anyone, not even Black Doom. What could Mephiles have to make her so upset?

It was at that time that Rouge decided to show up. "There you are. I have been looking all over for you two. We have a problem." Rouge told them. "Problem?" Shadow questioned. "It seems Eggman's machines are looking for you, Shadow. So what did you do this time?" Rouge asked. "Nothing. There target is probably Mephiles." Shadow informed her. "What is Eggman up to this time? What does he want from Mephiles?" Kumori questioned. "I'll just have to ask him directly." Shadow said. "Hey! Hold on!" Rouge exclaimed. "I can handle this alone. You keep track of Mephiles." Shadow instructed them. "I got no problem there." Kumori said as she cracked her knuckles. Shadow nodded his head in agreement with her and ran off.

"Geez. He finally shows up again and then he leaves before even saying "Hello". Well, it's good to see his little trip hasn't changed him, right Kumori?" Rouge asked the hedgehog prototype, but received no reply. "Kumori?" Rouge asked again before she turned around to find that she had disappeared. "Those two are more alike then they know." Rouge said. Rouge pressed a button on her wrist communicator to contact the G.U.N. commander. "What is it, agent Rouge?" the commander asked. "Sorry to bother you, boss. But I need to ask you for a favor." Rouge requested. "What?" the commander asked. "I need you to pull up all available data about an item called the scepter of darkness." Rouge requested.

* * *

Shadow traveled west to find himself in a large canyon filled with industrial sites and train track everywhere. "I can feel it. Eggman is here somewhere." Shadow said as he scanned around for any signs of Eggman. "Ugh, where is he? There has to be something that can tell me where he is." Shadow said. Just then, a long black train with several white mechs standing on the roof of the passenger cars. As the train passed by him, Shadow somehow noticed that Eggman was in the conductor's seat in the front of the train. "That work for me." Shadow said before jumping on the tracks to chase after the train.

Eggman was peacefully sitting in his chair as he was examining three documents on his computer. The first document contained information on the Solaris Project created by the ruler of Soleanna ten years ago. The second document contained as much information about Mephiles as Eggman could find, but there was very little of anything. The third and final document was what pecked Eggman's interest. The third document contained everything about Iblis, the flame of disaster. That included how it was created, what it could do, and that it was sealed inside the princess of Soleanna. "My, the flames of disaster are even more powerful then I imagined. Once I capture the princess, those very flames will be under my control and I will rule the world!" Eggman stated as he gave his signature obnoxious laugh.

Just then, the train's alarms system suddenly went off. "What?!" Eggman exclaimed as he started pressing several buttons on the computer console. The documents on the screen disappeared and were replaced by a video screen of Shadow following Eggman's train from behind. "Great, another hedgehog. I have already had enough trouble from Sonic a few minutes ago. I don't have time from him." Eggman said as he pressed one of the buttons on the console. "Attention, all mechs! Be on the looks out for Shadow, the black hedgehog. If you find him, eliminate him." Eggman ordered.

Shadow was able to catch up to the speeding train and jumped up to land on the roof. That was probably not a good idea because there were five white mechs with their guns aimed directly towards his head. "Great." Shadow said sarcastically. The mechs fired their guns and Shadow quickly jumped to the side to avoid the gun shots. The mechs turned to Shadow, who was now corned with nowhere to go. If Shadow made the slightest mistake, he would fall off the train and possible severely injure himself. "This is bad." Shadow said as he looked down to the ground behind him, which was moving past him at an accelerated rate. Shadow looked back at the mechs as the cocked their guns to prepare to fire again. Shadow realized that with the mechs in front and edge behind him, there was only one way he could survive: take the edge.

Shadow took a single step backwards, which caused him to fall over the edge. The mechs quickly walked over to the edge to found out if Shadow had really jumped off and wasn't pretending to trick them. When the mechs looked over they found that Shadow was not there and figured that he had really jumped. "Target is eliminated. Mission complete." One of the mechs stated. But the small victory was short lived when Shadow's voice was heard from behind. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Suddenly, five yellow arrows plowed straight through the mechs chest to destroy their cores, which cause them to go offline and fall over the edge and be crushed by the train's wheels. "Now that that's over, it's on to Eggman." Shadow said before jumping across the roof of the train's cars to reach the main car.

The ceiling in Eggman's car blew open and Shadow jumped down to confront the evil scientist. "Wouldn't the door have been easier?" Eggman mockingly asked as he turned his chair to face Shadow. "So, what do you want now?" Eggman asked. "Who is Mephiles and why are you trying to capture him?" Shadow questioned. If you want to know, then you should go find him yourself." Eggman said as he got out of his chair and turned to face the computer. "But here's a hint...It's all linked to the Soleanna disaster ten years ago." Eggman hinted. "The Solaris Project." Shadow concluded. "Indeed. When you capture Mephiles, you must bring him to me. Then I will tell you the truth about Solaris" Eggman persuaded. "Forget it; you're on your own." Shadow said before he jumped out through the hole in the roof. "No matter. Either way, the Solaris project and its secrets will be all mine." Eggman said with a fiendish chuckle.

* * *

Sonic was running with Elise in his arms and Amy running next to them. "I knew it. I knew you would return. You had to." Elise said to Sonic. "Sonic! Look out!" Amy shouted as she pulled him away just in time to avoid a green blast of energy. Sonic looked ahead and saw Silver standing in front of them. "You again?" Sonic said. "This time there will be no more interruptions! The Iblis Trigger must die!" Silver exclaimed. Silver launch a wave of psychokinetic energy at Sonic, which Sonic dived to avoid. Just as Sonic was about to get back to his feet, Silver used his psychokinetic powers to hold Sonic in place. "Sonic!" Amy shouted. "Did you two enjoy your little walk?" Eggman's voice came from the sky. Elise and Amy looked back for a moment before being captured by Eggman's Eggmobile. "Sonic!" Amy shouted to her hero. "Amy! Elise!" Sonic shouted, desperately trying to break free from Silver's hold to save them, but it was useless.

"It's time to end this, once and for all!" Silver exclaimed. Silver then raised his hand to finish Sonic, but was interrupted again when Mephiles jumped between them. Silver jumped back in surprise of Mephiles appearance, which forced him to release Sonic from his hold. "Mephiles! Why are you getting in my way?" Silver asked, confused about his ally's actions. "I am Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog." Shadow said to Silver. Shadow looked back to Sonic and said "Get going." "Thanks, Shadow." Sonic said before he ran off to chase after Amy and Elise. Shadow turned back to his new opponent with every intention of defeating him.

Shadow was the first to strike and he charged at Silver. Silver countered by using his psychokinetic powers to push Shadow away fifteen feet. Shadow landed on his feet and looked stared at Silver, obviously impressed. "It's obvious that I have underestimated you. You are more powerful then you look, I'll give you that." Shadow said to Silver. "And I'm just getting started." Silver said as he used psychokinetic powers to lift a bunch of nearby tools and throw them at Shadow. Shadow made no move to avoid them, but instead started swatting them away like flies. "You call them power? Here, let me show you what real power is." Shadow said. Ten yellow arrows formed around Shadow. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow shouted as the yellow arrows flew towards silver. Thinking quickly, Silver created a force field that stopped Shadow's attack and rebounded it back towards him. Silver was exhausted from using his psychokinetic powers too much in one day. Shadow was becoming exhausted from using his chaos spear and being hit by Silver's and his own attacks. The winner of the battle would soon be decided

Growing very frustrated with Shadow, Silver charged at him without even thinking. Shadow saw this as an opportunity and pulled out the green chaos emerald he had obtained from the future. "CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow shouted. Time instantly stopped and Shadow took the chance to deliver a strike kick to the back of Silver's head. Time returned to normal and Silver was sent plowing to the ground with an enormous pain in the back of his head. Silver got to his knees and stared at Shadow with anger in his eyes. "Why you!" Silver exclaimed. "Don't bother trying to defeat me. With a chaos emerald's power, I can control time and space. You can't break free." Shadow said to him. "I won't give up! It all depends on me! I can't lose! Not when I'm so close!" Silver said with determination. Silver then remembered the chaos emerald that Black Doom gave to him and pulled it out into Shadow's view.

Silver and Shadow charged at each other and bashed their arms together. "CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow and Silver shout at the same time. The double chaos control created and spark of energy to be released and created and white vortex behind them. "What is that?" Silver asked. Shadow already knew about it since he used it to help sonic return to his time, but was surprised that Silver was able to create it. "You...induced chaos control." Shadow said in surprise. "I won't let anyone get in my way! I'll change the past and save the world!" Silver exclaimed. "What an idiot." Shadow thought. "Mephiles isn't trying to help you create a better future; he's trying to eliminate the past." Shadow told him. "What? What are you talking about?" Silver asked, confused at what Shadow was saying. "If you want to know the truth then it would seem we must see what happened ten years ago. Follow me if you want to know the truth." Shadow told him before jumping into the vortex. Silver stood there for a moment, thinking about what to do. Who could he trust, Shadow or Mephiles. Silver had decided. Silver jumped into the vortex with Shadow to find out the truth.

* * *

**Please, read and review**


	7. Sealing Mephiles

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Seven: Sealing Mephiles 

A white vortex opens and Silver and Shadow drop down from it into an unknown location. "Where are we?" Silver asks. "My guess is that we are in the experimental base where the Solaris Project was created." Shadow said. "The Solaris Project?" Silver questions. "It was an experiment that was created by the ruler of Soleanna to control time and allow humanity the chance to correct their sins." Shadow explains. "But, what does any of this have to do with Mephiles or Iblis?" Silver asks. Shadow was about to answer him until the heard a faint rumbling sound coming from down the corridor.

In a laboratory just down the corridor where Shadow and Silver were, many scientists were gather around a container with a small flame was being experimented on. Among the scientist was the ruler of Soleanna and the small flame was most likely the Solaris Project. "My lord, we can't contain it much longer. A spatial meltdown is inevitable. We have to take shelter." One of the scientists said. "Why, Solaris? Why do you refuse to listen to my voice?" The Ruler asked the small flame. "Father!" a small voice came from behind. The Ruler turned around and saw his daughter, Elise. Suddenly, the flames power grew stronger until there was too much to contain. In a desperate act to save his daughters life, The Ruler cover Elise with his own body just as the container exploded.

Down the corridor, Shadow and Silver caught sight of the explosion up the corridor and quickly ran towards it. Upon reaching the sight where the explosion took place, Shadow and Silver found a destroyed laboratory with many dead scientists lying on the ground. "It appears we are too late." Shadow said. Shadow noticed that, somehow, The Ruler was still alive and quickly rushed to his side. But while Shadow was busy with The Ruler, Silver noticed a ball of flame hanging over a pool of purple ooze. "That flame...its Iblis!" Silver exclaimed. Upon hearing Silver's words, Shadow also took notice of the purple ooze beneath the flames. "And that ooze must be the original Mephiles." Shadow said. "That's Mephiles?!" Silver said in shock. Then, to Shadow and Silver's surprise, the ball of flame and the purple ooze started to move away. "They're escaping!" Silver shouted. "We must split up. I'll go after Mephiles." Shadow said. "Ok. Then leave Iblis to me." Silver said. The two hedgehogs were about to pursue their enemies until a weak voice stop them. "Wait" Shadow and Silver looked back and The Ruler holding up a silver scepter to Shadow. "Seal it with this." The Ruler said weakly as he placed the scepter in Shadow's hands. Shadow quickly took the scepter from The Ruler and ran after Mephiles while Silver ran after Iblis.

Shadow entered a large room with four large tanks of strange liquid substances on the corners and a steel pillar in the center. Shadow was searching the entire base for the purple ooze that would one day be Mephiles. "How can such a formless matter escape so quickly?" Shadow asked no one. Suddenly, he was attacked by the same tiger creatures he confronted when he was transported to Silver's time, only different. Instead of being made of lava and rocks, these tigers were made from the same substance as Mephiles. "Looks like Mephiles is more powerful then I thought. Even after just being brought into existence." Shadow said.

The all the creatures now know as dark tigers pounced onto Shadow at once, but the black hedgehog just used his speed to step aside. "Still as weak as before." Shadow commented. One of the dark tigers turned to Shadow and, to Shadow's surprise, fired a purple laser beam from its mouth. The sudden laser assault caught Shadow by complete surprise and took to the hit directly in the chest. Shadow was thrown hard at the steel pillar and fell to the ground, holding his burning chest. "Ok, so they're a little stronger." Shadow said. The dark tiger formed a line and they all fired lasers out of theirs mouths at the same time. Acting fast, Shadow release one of his power rings and clutched it in his hand, shouting "CHAOS CONTROL!" Before the lasers were able to hit their target, Shadow vanished, which left the dark tigers confused. "Looking for me?" Shadow's voice could be heard down the line. The tigers looked over to see Shadow, in his ball form, spinning in place. Shadow then used his version of spin dash to plow straight through the line of dark tigers and destroy them.

"At least that's over." Shadow said. Just then, the ground below Shadow's feet began t quake until something large popped up and knocked Shadow away. Shadow landed on his feet and found himself coming face-to-face with a smaller version of the lava worm he faced in the future, only it was dark as well. "I need to keep my mouth shut." Shadow said to himself. The dark worms lunged at Shadow, but the ebony hedgehog moved away and watched as they burrowed under ground. "Just great!" Shadow exclaimed sarcastically. Without warning, the dark worm shot up out of the ground and swallowed Shadow whole. It looked like it was all over for Shadow until. "CHAOS BLAST!" The dark worm's body began to glow bright red until it exploded into a hundred. "Note to self: next time, find less disgusting way to escape." Shadow said as he tried to clean to worm guts out of his fur.

A loud crash was heard coming from behind Shadow. "You have got to be kidding me." Shadow said before turning around. Shadow once again found himself up against another dark creature created by Mephiles, only this time it brought friends. Shadow now had to fight a dark giant while trying to destroy an army of dark birds. "It's never easy, is it?" Shadow asked himself. The dark giant created a purple spiked rock like the lava ones and threw it at shadow. Growing tired of all these monsters, Shadow made no effort to move, but instead just reeled his foot back and kicked the rock ball straight back. The dark giant was hit by it own attack in the head and was crushed when Shadow suddenly appeared on top of the spiked ball and pounded away at it. Shadow quickly jumped away from the group as one of the dark birds almost took his head.

The dark birds decided to join in on the action as half of them swooped down to attack Shadow while the rest stayed behind. One swooped down to strike Shadow, but the black hedgehog just stooped it by grabbing its neck. "Pathetic." Shadow said. When the other dark birds flew down to attack him, Shadow used the dark bird in his hands as a bat to swat the others away and destroy them. The remaining dark birds that stayed behind closed their wings and reopened them to fire dark energy balls. Shadow quickly threw the dark bird in his hands to take the hit for him. "Mephiles really knows how to create powerful monsters, I'll give him that. But their still not enough." Shadow said as over a hundred yellows formed around him. The dark birds once again closed their wings and reopened them to launch a barrage of dark energy balls. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow shouted as the yellow arrows collided with the energy balls and whatever remained destroyed the dark birds.

Shadow was completely exhausted from using so much of his chaos powers all at one time. If it wasn't for the one power ring still on his wrist cuff, Shadow would most likely be dead right now. To make sure he didn't use up anymore of his chaos energy, Shadow placed the power ring back on his cuff and slowly waited for his power to return to his body. "Man, Mephiles hasn't even gained a physical form yet and he's still just as powerful." Shadow said. Shadow then felt a familiar chill going down his spine and turned back to find the formless ooze known as Mephiles trying to escape into another room. "Oh no, you don't!" Shadow exclaimed as he chased after the evil substance.

Mephiles tried to escape, but it was useless when he pulled out his chaos emerald. "CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow called out. Mephiles was instantly halted as his formless body was frozen in time. "What? Stop!" Mephiles yelled. The silver scepter that Shadow had obtained from the ruler began to float above his head as it glowed in the same light as the chaos emerald. "Who...who are...you?" Mephiles asked. "I am Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog." Shadow told him, not fearing of what would happen in the future. Slowly, Mephiles formless oozing body was being pulled forcefully into the scepter. "Shadow...your face...you form...I will remember." Mephiles said weakly. "Your death...certain...you...will die." Mephiles promised before his entire substance was trapped in the scepter and the seal was complete. With the seal complete, the scepter dropped from the air and landed in Shadow's hands. Shadow looked at it carefully, watching as it glowed just as menacingly as before.

* * *

Silver was waiting outside with Elise in his arms as Shadow walked out of the former base with the glowing scepter in his hands. "Did you do it?" Silver asked. "Yes. And you?" Shadow asked. "Yes. The flames have been properly sealed." Silver answered. Silver walked over to a near by tree and set Elise down next to it. Shadow looked at the scepter for a moment before setting it down next to Elise. "You're going to leave it behind?" Silver questioned. "Yes. I already know what becomes of it in the future." Shadow said to him. "It's time to return." Shadow said as he pulled out his chaos emerald. "Of course." Silver said as he pulled out his chaos emerald. The two hedgehogs lifter their chaos emeralds into the air and shouted" CHAOS CONTROL!" And on command, a white vortex appeared behind them and Shadow jumped through it.

* * *

Back inside the deserted laboratory where Solaris was created, a blue robot was walking into the center of the room. "It would appear that I am too late. Too bad, the Solaris Project could have been a great source of power for me. But at least I still have this." The blue robot said as he held up a small computer chip. The blue robot inserted the chip into its head and could feel an enormous amount of power enter its mechanical body. "Hahahaha. With this power I will have my revenge on Sonic for defeating me and Eggman for trying to deactivate me! Today begins the start of my own empire!" the blue robot laughed out as he began to transform.

* * *

**Please, read and review**


	8. Kumori's Secret

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Eight: Kumori's Secret

Back in the town of Soleanna, a white vortex appears in air with Shadow dropping down from it. "You're back sooner then I expected." Rouge's voice came from behind him. Shadow looked behind him and saw Rouge standing there like she had been waiting for him to show up. "So what did you find out about Mephiles?" Rouge asked. "What are you doing here anyway, Rouge?" Shadow questioned impatiently. "Kumori is still in pursuit of Mephiles and I think she might need some backup." Rouge said. "Where is she?" Shadow asked. "She is west of the town, just off the shore of Wave Ocean." Rouge replied. "Very well." Shadow said as he started to walk away.

"Hold on! You still didn't answer my question." Rouge said. Shadow stopped for a second and looked at Rouge before he said "Rogue, I have a request." "What is it?" Rouge asked. "I need you to access the G.U.N. database. Specifically, find out what materials the scepter of darkness was made from." Shadow requested. "Already ahead of you." Rouge said. Rouge then reached into her pouch and pulled out an exact replica of the original scepter of darkness. "I called G.U.N. earlier and asked them to make an exact copy. Just in case." Rouge said as she handed him the scepter copy. "Now all we have to do is find Mephiles." Shadow said. "Ok, but you still haven't answered my question." Rouge said. "I found a way seal him." Shadow told her before he ran off to find Kumori.

* * *

Kumori was running along the beach until she felt a cold chill run down her spine. "I know you're here Mephiles! Come out here and fight!" Kumori demanded. "My, aren't we a little anxious." Mephiles voice came from above. Kumori looked up and watched Mephiles as he jumped down a small cliff to land in front of her. "I had no idea you were so eager to die. If that's the case, then I will happily assist you." Mephiles said. "The only one dying is you, Mephiles!" Kumori said, her voice filled with hatred. "Hah, don't make me laugh. Let's find out if you are even worthy enough to fight me." Mephiles said. Ooze began to drip off of Mephiles' body and then started to take the form of dark tigers, dark birds and one dark worm. "Let the entertainment begin." Mephiles said amusingly. 

The dark tigers were the first to attack as they all jumped on Kumori at the same time. Kumori used her super speed to dodge the dark tigers and kicked them away. The dark tigers quickly recovered and reeled their heads back before throwing them forward and shot lasers from their mouths. This caught Kumori by surprise, but quickly dropped to the ground to avoid them, but one laser did graze her back and left a terrible burn mark. Kumori winced in pain as she felt the hot laser burn her fur and flesh. "There a lot stronger then I thought." Kumori thought. As Kumori weakly to get to her feet, trying her best to endure to pain in her back, and looked around herself to find that the dark tigers had her completely surrounded. "This is bad." Kumori though as the dark tigers reeled their heads back again to create more lasers. As she looked around to find a way to escape, an idea suddenly hit her and she patiently waited for the dark tigers to attack. "It seems she has accepted her fate." Mephiles said. As the dark tigers threw their heads forward and shot their lasers, Kumori suddenly jumped into air and watched as the lasers passed below her and destroyed the dark tigers on the opposite side.

"Ugh, idiots." Mephiles said as he watched his monsters being destroyed by their own attacks. Kumori landed with a smirk and said "What else you got?" Mephiles held his hand up and then threw it forward, signaling the dark birds to attack. Almost half the group charged at Kumori while the other half stayed behind. Kumori jumped from side to side as the dark birds dived at her from multiple directions. The dark birds kept diving at Kumori until she was backed into a wall of rocks. "This isn't good." Kumori said to herself. Unknown to her, Kumori kicked a stone from the wall, which caused a bigger rock to drop from a higher part of the wall and land on her head. "Ow!" Kumori exclaimed as she rubbed her aching head. Kumori looked at the rock that landed on her head and then to the wall above her and gave a sinister smirk. Mephiles saw this and looked at the wall above, instantly realizing her plan. "No, you idiots!" Mephiles called out, but it was too late. The dark bird closed their wings and then opened them again to fire dark energy balls at Kumori. Kumori, using her super speed, quickly moved out of the way and watched as the energy balls destroyed the wall, which caused the rocks above to crash down on the dark birds.

"Why did I create them in the first place?" Mephiles asked himself before he snapped his fingers, signaling the dark worm to attack. The dark worm quickly burrowed under the ground before Kumori had a chance to spot it. Kumori turned back and saw that Mephiles had no more monsters to hide behind. "Looks like it's just you and me." Kumori said. "I wouldn't be too sure." Mephiles said, confusing Kumori. Just then, the dark worm came up and struck Kumori in the back, which only created even greater pain to the burn mark she received earlier. Kumori fell to her knees in pain as she watched the dark worm burrow back into the ground. "Give it up. You have no reason to go on. Especially after what you did to Shadow." Mephiles said in a cruel tone. "Shut up!" Kumori yelled. "It's always hard to face the truth. But don't worry, you won't have to anymore." Mephiles said with a chuckle. Before Kumori could react, the dark worm popped up out of the ground and swallowed her whole before burrowing back to the ground. "Finally." Mephiles said. But to his surprise, the dark worm popped back out of the ground and fell over dead. Mephiles inspected the worm and then noticed a large hole in it's head.

"You're going to have to do better then that to get rid of me." Kumori's voice came from behind the dead worm. Kumori then walk from behind the dead worm and quickly went to her fighting stance. "Let's finish this, Mephiles!" Kumori demanded, but Mephiles wasn't listening. Mephiles had his eyes closed, as is he was concentrating on something...or someone. "It appears we'll be having guests. I guess I'll have to keep them occupied." Mephiles said. Mephiles then reached over to his left hand and then torn it completely off. Mephiles then created a ball off purple energy around it before it disappeared. "Now where were we? Oh, yes." Mephiles said. With a flick of his wrist, Mephiles left hand was restored. "Your destruction."

* * *

Shadow was running along the coast with Rouge flying behind him, searching for any sign of Kumori. They came to a sudden stop when a ball of purple energy appeared in the sky and Mephiles' hand fell to the ground. "What is that?" Rouge asked. It looks like...Mephiles' hand" Shadow answered. Rouge walked over to inspect it until Shadow pulled her back. "What's the big deal?" Rouge questioned. "Look." Shadow said as he pointed to Mephiles' hand. The hand soon turned it a puddle of ooze before growing bigger and forming into a dark giant. "Now there's something you don't see everyday." Rouge commented. 

The dark giant created a spiky black ball in its hands and threw it at the two. Shadow used his speed while Rouge took to the skies to avoid the attack. Rouge dived at the dark giant and spun around at a fast pace, shouting "SCREW KICK!" Rouge aimed her signature attack at the giants head and blew it completely off. "All right!" Rouge cheered. But to Rouge's surprise, the headless giant quickly grabbed Rouge and started to crush her. "Aah!" Rouge shouted from the pain. Rouge looked around for Shadow, but couldn't find him any where. "Where is he?" Rouge questioned in her mind. All seemed hopeless for Rouge until. "CHAOS LANCE!" Just then, a large yellow arrow passed threw the giant and destroyed it. Rouge escaped for the monsters grasp and looked up to find Shadow standing on top of a small cliff. Rouge flew up to him and said "Well it's about time. Shadow was about to reply until he heard, what sounded like, Kumori fighting. "That's Kumori. Come on!" Shadow shouted before running to Kumori's location.

From the looks of it, Kumori had the upper hand as she constantly kicked and punch Mephiles without him being able to defend himself. Kumori gave a strong side kick to Mephiles' chest, which pushed him back a few feet. "This only proves that you were created as a monster destined to destroy Shadow." Mephiles said. Kumori said nothing as she stared at him with eyes filled to the brim with hatred. "Oh, don't tell me you didn't know. You may have been created by humanity, but what you did to Shadow in the future, that was your..." Mephiles was cut off by Kumori. "SHUT UP!!!" Kumori yelled as she jumped up and delivered a strong flying side kick to Mephiles head. Mephiles fell to the ground and stayed there, laughing, before he disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

By the time Shadow and Rouge arrived, Mephiles was already gone, but they were able to listen in on their conversation. "What just happened?" Rouge asked. Kumori held her head down in shame for a moment before turning to Shadow. "Shadow. The one that defeats you and kills you in the future is...me." Kumori confessed. Needless to say, Shadow was shocked to the extreme. Kumori, his prototype and the very hedgehog who proclaimed her love for him, was the one that was destined to kill him. "What?" Shadow said softly, still in shock and feeling a bit of sadness in his heart.

"But...how?" Rouge asked, deeply confused at how Kumori could have killed Shadow. "Several years from now, the G.U.N. commander resigns his position and another takes his place. The new commander hated the fact that Shadow existed and came up with a plan to get rid of him. That's when he asked me to do it." Kumori told her story. "But why you?" Rouge asked. "He knew Shadow wouldn't kill me." Kumori answered. "So why did you kill me?" Shadow asked calmly. "I didn't. At least, not intentionally. When the new commander asked me, I quickly turned him down. He was angry after that. Looking through Professor Gerald's old files, the new commander discovered a way to create mind-controlling technology and used it on me to kill Shadow. It was only after that I discovered that the new commander was really Mephiles in disguise. I tried to get all the G.U.N. soldiers to avenge Shadow and kill Mephiles, but they didn't care. They said they were happy, now that Shadow was dead." Kumori finished telling her story.

"But...that's so unfair! Shadow's always here to defend the world!" Rouge exclaimed. "Eventually, when something or someone is seen as too powerful...they are seen as a threat. And then the world becomes their enemy." Kumori explained. After that, Shadow turned around and started walking away with the same grim expression he had when he was first awakened by Eggman. "Shadow." Rouge said, stopping Shadow in his tracks. "Even if you believe everyone in the world will be against you...just know that me and Kumori will always be by your side." Rouge told him. "It doesn't matter. This conversation made me realize something." Shadow said. "What?" Kumori asked. "I was better off...alone." Shadow said grimly before he ran off. Shadow!" Rouge and Kumori called out to him, but he was already gone. If you looked closly you could see a single tear escaping from Shadow's eyes.

* * *

**Please, read and review**


	9. Mephiles' Final Temptation

**SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Nine: Mephiles' Final Temptation

Shadow was standing at the northern entrance of the town of Soleanna and stared out into the barren wasteland known as Dusty Desert. But Shadow wasn't alone. Standing next to him was a stranger covered by a dirty brown cloak that said he held information on Mephiles' current whereabouts. "Where did you say he was again?" Shadow asked. "In the temple ruins located in the middle of the desert. That is where you will find Mephiles." The stranger answered. Shadow had a very hard time trusting this person. Then again, after what Kumori told him, Shadow didn't trust anyone anymore. As Shadow looked at the cloaked stranger and noticed a faint blue aura of chaos energy. Shadow could tell this guy was powerful.

"But why would Mephiles be here?" Shadow asked. "Might I take a guess?" Rouge's voice came from behind. Shadow quickly turned around and found that the cloaked stranger was gone and Rouge and a depressed Kumori were standing at the entrance. "What are you doing here?" Shadow questioned. "Mephiles appears to be headed for those ruins. He's probably looking for the chaos emerald that's supposed to be there." Rouge said. "That make's sense. His movement shows that he's seeking the seven chaos emeralds. Supposedly, he needs them to join with Iblis again." Shadow concluded. "Then I will seal him before he does." Kumori said, replacing her depression with determination.

Shadow turned to the two females and glared at them, which greatly scared the two. "You will do no such thing!" Shadow said in venomously manner. "But Shadow..." Rouge was cut off. "No buts! I want you two to stay as far away from this battle as possible!" Shadow shouted. "All we want to do is help!" Rouge shouted back. "Like I'm supposed to believe that." Shadow said calmly before he ran off into the desert. "Ugh, that little..." Rouge shouted in anger. After hearing what Shadow had said, Kumori returned to her depressive state and started walking back to town. "Hey! Where are you going?" Rouge asked, taking notice to Kumori's imminent departure. "Shadow doesn't want us. So there's no point in staying here." Kumori said sadly. Unexpectedly, Rouge stomped towards Kumori and slapped her across the face. "How can you say that?! He needs us!" Rouge exclaimed. "But...you heard what Shadow said." Kumori said. "Kumori...Do you love Shadow?" Rouge asked. "Of course." Kumori said like it was the easiest answer in the world. "Then prove it." Rouge challenged.

After trekking through ten miles of sand, Shadow had reached the temple ruins, but couldn't find a way inside. "There must be a switch or something around here." Shadow said as he started to feel around the wall for any secret entrances. But while Shadow was searching, a black worm slowly wiggled its head out of the sand to spot its prey. In one swift motion, the dark worm jumped out and charged at Shadow. During his search, Shadow noticed a shadow on the wall and knew it wasn't his because Mephiles was his shadow. Shadow quickly jumped to the side before the dark worm hit the ground and burrowed under again. "Mephiles is defiantly here." Shadow said. The dark worm jumped out from behind him, but Shadow quickly countered by using a chaos spear towards the dark worm's throat. The dark worm dropped dead from the attack.

"This one seemed much weaker then the others. Either Mephiles is growing weaker or he is just stalling for time." Shadow assumed. Just then, another dark worm popped out of the ground in front of Shadow. "It's defiantly the second one. But Mephiles is gonna need a lot more then that to stop me." Shadow said with a smirk. As he said that, over a hundred dark birds, dark tigers, dark worms, and dark giants popped out of the ground. "That should do it." Shadow said nervously. As the dark monster army advanced forward, a single dark tiger secretly snuck up behind Shadow. The tiger lunged at Shadow, ready to kill. Just then, Shadow heard a feral screech from behind him and looked back to find the dark tiger pinned to the ground with a razor blade through its head. "Looks like you could use a hand." Just then, Erazor Djinn appeared in a puff of black smoke to defend Shadow. "What are you doing here?" Shadow questioned. "No time for that. Mephiles is getting closer to the chaos emerald. I will help you get inside." Erazor said as he snapped his fingers. Shadow suddenly turned into a cloud of smoke and entered the temple through the cracks. Erazor pulled his razor blade from the dead monsters skull and turned back to the rest, saying "Who's first?"

* * *

The cloud of smoke passed threw the cracks in the wall and reformed together to create Shadow's body. "So that's how genies feel when they turn to smoke, huh? It's actually kind of pleasant." Shadow said. Shadow scanned his surroundings and found himself in a room filled with sand and several stone platforms scattered around it. Even from this room, Shadow could feel Mephiles' cold, spine chilling presences just up ahead. "This time, you won't get away, Mephiles. Shadow stated before he jumped off to land in the sand. Unfortunately, when Shadow landed in the sand, he instantly activated the temple's defenses. The sand started shifting around and soon turned into a series of sand waves similar to water ones. 

The waves came crashing down on Shadow, but he was just lucky enough to avoid them in time. But the waves just kept coming. To make matters worse, a dark giant and two dark birds dropped down from the ceiling and seemed to be able to resist the sand waves. "As if this couldn't get any worse." Shadow said. Shadow quickly jumped to the side to avoid an incoming sand wave, only to be hit in the back by a dark energy ball. A dark giant threw a spiky rock ball at Shadow, who avoided it, only to be hit by a sand wave. "I have had enough of this!" Shadow shouted in anger. Shadow's body began to gather red chaos energy until he released it. "CHOAS BLAST!" The chaos explosion not only destroyed the dark monsters, but it also seemed to deactivate the temple's defense system. "Now to find Mephiles" Shadow said as he ran through the door into another part of the temple.

Shadow stopped as he found himself in a large circular room with a shrine at the end. Shadow looked up the shrine to find Mephiles holding the yellow chaos emerald. "Mephiles!" Shadow called out. "I was expecting you sooner. As you must know, you are already too late. But there's still time for you to change your mind. Join me, Shadow. Let us teach this world a lesson and rewrite the future." Mephiles offered once again. "Don't try to deceive me." Shadow said. "What?" Mephiles questioned. "You have no desire for revenge. You were only created for destruction. You're only lust is to fuel Iblis until there is nothing left of time itself." Shadow said. "You say that I was created for destruction. That makes one more thing we have in common." Mephiles said. "What?" Shadow questioned. "We were not born, we were created. And we were created for one purpose: destruction. So why deny it? You have nothing left to lose. Humanity will hate you; your friends will betray you. So why bother protecting them any longer." Mephiles tempted him. Shadow though about this and figured...he was right. "Join me, Shadow." Mephiles offered for a final time. Shadow was about to accept until. "STOP!!!"

Shadow and Mephiles looked over and saw Kumori and Rouge stop in front of Shadow. "What are you doing here?!" Shadow questioned in anger. "Stopping you from making a big mistake." Rouge said. "The only mistake I made was denying my reason for existing. Now if you'll excuse me." Shadow said as he started to turn back to Mephiles. Suddenly, Kumori grabbed Shadow by his arm and forced him to turn around before punching across the face. Kumori's action had caught everyone by surprise. Shadow fell to the ground and tried to get up, but couldn't because Kumori had pinned him to the ground. "Get off!" Shadow shouted as he tried to pry free from Kumori's head. Suddenly, Shadow felt a small drop of water land on his forehead. Shadow looked up and saw Kumori crying. "I won't let you go, Shadow." Kumori said through the tears. "I already lost you once to Mephiles. I won't let that happen again. I love you too much to let that happen." Kumori said. Shadow felt Kumori's grip loosen and quickly jumped to his feet with Kumori. Instead of pushing her away like Mephiles expected, Shadow was actually hugging her, which quickly calmed her down.

"What is this?!" Mephiles shouted in confusion. What was Shadow doing? She I supposed to be his enemy. "You won't lose me, Kumori. Remember that promise I made to you 50 years ago?" Shadow whispered to her. "You promised you would always be there for me." Kumori said. "And I have no intention of breaking it now." Shadow said as they separated. "So, what is your decision, Shadow?" Mephiles asked. "Your offer sounds tempting, but I have decided to turn it down." Shadow answered. "It's a pity, Shadow the Hedgehog." Mephiles said as the chaos emerald started to float above his head. "Truly a shame that you wish to go against me!" Mephiles exclaimed. The chaos emerald then shot out a pulse of energy that knocked the group back a few feet. The chaos energy transformed the floor below them into an arena of black ooze. "This will be your last battle. Prepare to suffer along with your friends." Mephiles said.

"Drown in darkness, you fools!" Mephiles yelled before he jumped into the pool of ooze. "That can't be good." Rouge said. The group clumped together to a triangle formation to make sure nothing would catch them off guard. Just then, a large hand of ooze formed quickly and swatted the group away a few feet. Another hand was formed from the ooze and caught Kumori in midair, squeezing the life out of her. "This is your fault. Suffer, you filthy rat!" Mephiles shouted as the hands grip grew tighter. Thinking fast, Rouge reached into her pouch and threw a series of bombs that reduced the hand back into ooze. Shadow quickly Kumori as she began to fall and helped her regain consciousness. "Are you ok?" Shadow asked. "I'm fine. A little disgusted, but fine." Kumori answered. This time, a gigantic monster formed in front of the group, with the upper half of Mephiles' body sticking out of its forehead. "Don't you fools understand? You can not defeat someone that can not die." Mephiles said arrogantly. "We'll just see about that." Shadow replied.

The trio charged at the gigantic monster. Kumori used her homing attack to slice the monsters arms off, but they only grew back a minute later. Rouge threw her bombs at the monsters chest, but all that did was create a small hole that was regenerated in seconds. Shadow used his chaos spear on the monsters head, but the monster countered by opening its mouth and sucking them up. "Hahaha. My turn." Mephiles said amusingly. The monster then opened its mouth and shot out a gigantic laser aimed for Shadow. "Only one chance." Shadow said as he reaches for an object behind his back. When the laser hit, the only thing seen was a large cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Shadow was no longer there. "Shadow!" Kumori yelled. "I knew he didn't stand a chance." Mephiles said with a chuckle. "Wanna bet?" a voice was heard above Mephiles. Mephiles looked up and saw Shadow with a large yellow arrow in his hands. "CHOAS LANCE!" the attack completely blew Mephiles away, which also destroyed the monster and returned the temple to its original design.

Mephiles tried his best to stand, but he was too weak. "But...how?" Mephiles asked. Shadow only answered by revealing the green chaos emerald in his hand. Too weak to stay in a solid form, Mephiles reverted into a puddle of ooze. "Now to end this." Shadow said as he pulled out the scepter replica and walked up to Mephiles. Using the power of the chaos emerald, the scepter floated above Shadow's head and began to seal Mephiles like before. The sealing was complete, but something was wrong. Suddenly, the scepter replica began to crack until it exploded. "It's destroyed!" Rouge shouted in shock. Mephiles' dark ooze began spiraling in the air, slowly reforming. "The "I" of now absorbed your powers through your shadow in the past." Mephiles said. Mephiles' solid body was now completely reformed. "What may have worked ten years ago, No longer does!" Mephiles exclaimed as he shot out a wave of pulsating of energy at the group.

Shadow and the others tried to resist Mephiles' power, but it was too much and were thrown halfway across the room. Mephiles landed firmly on the ground and now held both chaos emeralds in his hands. "What?" Shadow questioned as he looked in his hand to notice the emerald was gone. Mephiles most likely stole it during his attack. The chaos emerald formed an infinite sign above Mephiles' head, which created a thousand more copies of himself to surround the group. "You must realize now, that you cannot hope to stop me with your limited power." Mephiles said. "So you say." Shadow said with a sinister smirk on his face. "It's futile. The world will betray you. Why fight at all? Why risk your life for those who will persecute you later?" Mephiles continually questioned. "The world can become my enemy if it wants. But as long as I have my friends by my side, I will fight like I always have." Shadow proclaimed. Shadow then released both his power rings and looked to Kumori, who also released her power rings. The trio clutched their hands together with smirks on their faces as they decided finish the battle with one final attack.

"CHAOS BURST!!!"

* * *

**All Hail Shadow**

All hail Shadow, heroes rise again  
obliterating everything that's not your friend  
nothing can stop you now  
No ghosts to bring you down  
when there's nothing left to lose, you win

Bow your heads low!  
All hail Shadow!

Bow your heads low!  
All hail Shadow!

Suffer long and it will set you free  
only through trial do we find the strength we need  
It's never over, just another day  
of hope and tragedies and everything that comes our way

Determination of the strong  
Found the meaning that you've searched for so long

All hail Shadow, heroes rise again  
obliterating everything that's not your friend  
nothing can stop you now  
No ghosts to bring you down  
when there's nothing left to lose, you win

Bow your heads low!  
All hail Shadow!

Bow your heads low!  
All hail Shadow!

Somewhere in chaos we all find ourselves  
This destruction is the only tale we tell  
White is black, and black is white  
Right is wrong, and wrong is right  
Nothing ever fills this hole inside your heart

Determination of the strong  
Found the meaning that you've searched for so long

All hail Shadow, heroes rise again  
obliterating everything that's not your friend  
nothing can stop you now  
No ghosts to bring you down  
when there's nothing left to lose, you win

Bow your heads low!  
All hail Shadow!

Bow your heads low!  
All hail Shadow!

All hail Shadow, heroes rise again  
obliterating everything that's not your friend  
nothing can stop you now  
No ghosts to bring you down  
when there's nothing left to lose, you win

Bow your heads low!  
All hail Shadow!

Bow your heads low!  
All hail Shadow!

* * *

**Part 2 of 3 is now complete. Don't miss the final conclusion, Sonic the Hedgehog: Solaris. Please, read and review.**


End file.
